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Apparently the U.S. Constitution no longer applies when it comes to battling music and movie piracy.Consider California legislation already passed by two state Senate committees. It allows law enforcement to enter optical-disc plants and seize disc-stamping equipment, and pirated movie and music discs without a court warrant.“The crime of illegal mass reproduction of music and movies is a serious problem. Last year alone, more than 820,000 illegal discs were seized by law enforcement authorities in California,” Sen. Alex Padilla, a Los Angeles-area Democrat and author of the legislation, said in a statement. “Fraudulent CDs and DVDs undermine our economy and California’s role as a global leader in music and film. They steal revenue from artists, retailers, and our entertainment sector.”The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America are supporting the constitutionally suspect measure, which also allows fines of up to $250,000. The legislation, which is up for a vote in another Senate committee next week, comes as the federal government is also cracking down on pirated goods.Last week, 11 senators of all stripes proposed federal legislation that would grant the government the authority to bring lawsuits against websites “dedicated to infringing activities” and obtain court orders requiring search engines like Google to stop displaying links to them. The Department of Homeland Security has also seized 200 infringing websites by invoking the same statutes used to seize drug houses.The RIAA claims about 90 percent of illegal discs come from replicator plants, like the ones targeted in Padilla’s legislation. About 70 such plants are in California, according to the RIAA, which estimates up to 70 million counterfeit music discs are pressed each year in the Golden State.“Given the music community’s large presence in California and significant contributions to the state economy through thousands of jobs and benefits, this narrowly-tailored bill helps ensure these contributions are preserved while sending the important message that counterfeit replicators are not welcome in the state,” Cara Duckworth, an RIAA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “If a replicator is already in compliance with state law, they should have nothing to worry about with this proposed legislation.”Padilla’s measure has unanimously cleared the Committee on Public Safety and passed, by a 5-2 vote, the Appropriations Committee. Sen. Ron Calderon, a Los Angeles-area Democrat who voted against the bill, told the Los Angeles Times he did so out of “constitutional concerns.”
